Letting a 6 year old watch the Simpsons

[sassypants72]

Please good people of Mumsnet help me get across to my DH that the simpsons is not really suitable for 6 year old DD to be watching.

He put it on tonight for her and I went mad saying it's unsuitable. He thinks I'm being very unreasonable, am I ???

Seems like the OP was expecting everyone to back her up! Didn't really work out that way did it?

I wouldn't have a problem with it atall. I've heard someone say this before but didn't really know what they were going on about. It's not something I watch regularly but wouldn't have a problem if it was on. I'm fairly laid back about things like that though.

My DD has been watching it for years. She's 11 now and the adult stuff still goes over her head.

Futurama is more innuendo filled than the Simpsons.

Our two year old watches The Simpsons

OP, she'd tell you to eat your shorts, and she'd be right

Many a kid watched the old DC / Marvel cartoons in the 80s and 90s (X-men, Batman, Spiderman) and I would argue they were probably far darker and more damaging than anything the Simpsons could come up with. It’s a family show.

It's fine? They don't notice the adult stuff.

The inappropriate stuff goes right over their heads, said as someone who has watched it both as a child and as an adult

Why isn't it suitable? I've never even considered it to be inappropriate, it's on at what, 6pm? Can't be that bad

My 6 year old watches it. He loves the slapstick element of it. The innuendo and pop culture stuff goes over his head.

Can’t say I’ve ever seen a use of mild swear words on the show. Maybe it’s the newer episodes on Sky? We just watch the tea time ones on channel 4 which have anything inappropriate edited out.

Not any different than Tom & Jerry. Didn't do me any harm.

My oh will not allow it! Dd thinks There just funny yellow people he says it not for children? 

YABU. The eps they show on C4 and Sky are heavily edited anyway - they even removed the fabulous "nobody's gay for Moleman" line last time that ep was on...

I think it's great and not unsuitable for little children. There are some adult references but so subtle, no child would 'get' them. The social comment is marvellous.

The thing is, you can't tell what a child will pick up on. DSD2 was let watch Dirty Dancing at about 7, not by us. We (her dad and me) discovered this when she got very upset about having to go to the doctor. Turns out she'd remembered that Penny (?) gets sick because she didn't go to a real doctor and she was scared our doctor wasn't a real one. Yes, the fact that it was an abortion went over her head but the whole thing clearly had an impact. So whilst the Simpson's isn't quite on that level there are things they could pick up on so if you feel uncomfortable about it then that's fine. The time it's on doesn't mean anything. Hollyoaks is on at 6.30 and no-one's watching that with their pre-schooler!

If your child is already used to watching though you may be better reaching a compromise about how often they watch it, or not the scary ones. I'd probably let a child watch when they're a bit older.

I think it’s fine - it’s a clever show, it’s full of smutty jokes but they’ll all go right over a small child’s head.

My 5 year old loves it! She thinks it's hilarious

It first came out when I was around that age and all the adult stuff went over my head. They structure the jokes to work like that. I watch again as an adult and finally get the references from a different perspective!

Agree that it should be compulsory viewing for all ages.

Back in its hayday lots of kids at school had Simpsons lunchboxes. I'd say it's aimed at kids just as much as adults.

We were never allowed to watch it and as an adult I still don't. It's not just the swearing. As our mum said, Bart Simpson is a bad boy but he wants everyone to think he's funny. But there's nothing funny about being bad.

She shouldn't watch Simpsons b/c it's awful & provides income to the Murdoch-FoxNews empire. I loathe the take-back jokes and the characters are all losers. Yuck.

I still remember the jot when we moved house when I was about 8 and we got cable so could watch the Simpsons. I think we had it less than a year though! Then one day BBC 2 started showing it! Its always been aimed at adults and children; there were loads of Simpsons childrens products in the early 90s.

The 6pm episodes on channel 4 are so editted, there is nothing offensive in them. But if you look at the Simpsons they are are loving family, often help each other out, go to church every sunday!

I loved it as a kid. Find it quite dull now.

YABU. My DCs grew up watching The Simpsons, back when it was really funny. They knew dialogue off by heart and did whole episodes together when we went on long road trips.

Agnurse - are you the ghost of Barbara Bush? Bart is a sort of anti-hero, a literary archetype.

I think it's fine - any inappropriate jokes will just fly over their heads anyway.